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Vol. 2, No. 1; March 2012

A Study of Teaching Methods in Entrepreneurship Education for

Graduate Students
Zahra Arasti (Corresponding author)
Faculty of entrepreneurship, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Tel: 98-216-111-9227

E-mail: arasti@ut.ac.ir

Mansoreh Kiani Falavarjani

Faculty of entrepreneurship, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Tel: 98-216-111-9227

E-mail: m_kiani@ut.ac.ir

Narges Imanipour
Faculty of entrepreneurship, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Tel: 98-216-111-9227
Received: November 17, 2011
doi:10.5539/hes.v2n1p2

E-mail: nimanip@ut.ac.ir

Accepted: November 24, 2011

Published: March 1, 2012

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/hes.v2n1p2

Abstract
As stated in numerous studies, entrepreneurship education is becoming more and more important everywhere in the
world and research in entrepreneurship are growing and getting legitimacy in the scientific communities, however a
few scholars have focused on the subfield of entrepreneurship education. Although the key to a successful
entrepreneurship education is to find the most effective way to manage the teachable skills and identify the best
match between student needs and teaching techniques, there is no universal pedagogical recipe to teach
entrepreneurship and the choice of techniques and modalities depends mainly on the objectives, contents and
constraints imposed by the institutional context.
Education programs in entrepreneurship are a new phenomenon in Iran. These programs vary widely in terms of
short term objectives, target audiences, format and pedagogical approach. The first M.Sc. entrepreneurship
management program has been initiated in the University of Tehran in 2005. One of the basic courses in this
entrepreneurship curriculum is "business planning". This paper attempts to identify the appropriate teaching
methods in this course conducting two qualitative studies by semi-structured interviews. Results of the first study on
a sample of experts in teaching methods complete the list of teaching methods that could be used in entrepreneurship
education. The results of second study on a sample of lecturers of "business planning" course show that appropriate
teaching methods of this course are respectively group project, case study, individual project, development of a new
venture creation project, and problem-solving. Furthermore, in this study, the appropriate teaching methods in each
component of this course have been presented.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship education, Teaching methods, M.Sc. students, Business planning
1. Introduction
The last decade has witnessed the powerful emergence of entrepreneurship research worldwide. There seems to be
widespread recognition that entrepreneurship is the engine driving the economy and society of most nations (Alberti
et al, 2004). Nowadays both scholars and policy makers are becoming aware of the importance of the educational
system for entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship education has different short term and long term results in the society
(Hannon et al. 2006).
Most entrepreneurship education programs present different objectives. These may be specific and immediately
measurable objectives as well as more general and complex ones. Through the identification of various objectives of
entrepreneurship education, we might have a deeper understanding of educational needs as well as a more weighted
choice of evaluative criteria and pedagogical techniques (Alberti et al, 2004).

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Rae and Carswell (2001) and Shepherd and Douglas (1997) have discussed that there is a distinction between the
teachable and the non-teachable elements of entrepreneurship. The key to a successful entrepreneurship education is
to find the most effective way to manage the teachable skills and identify the best match between student needs and
teaching techniques (Lee et al, 2007).
In Iran, the master entrepreneurship program initiated in university of Tehran in 2005 and the first faculty of
entrepreneurship was founded in 2007. On the other hand, an optional course of "fundamental of entrepreneurship"
was included in the curriculum for non-business students in university of Tehran and many other universities in Iran.
"Business plan" is one of the key courses in the entrepreneurship education program in the faculty of
entrepreneurship in University of Tehran. This is one of the rare studies in the subfield of entrepreneurship education
and focuses on the analysis of teaching methods of "business plan" course. This paper has been structured in five
parts. A review of the literature on entrepreneurship education and specifically on teaching methods in
entrepreneurship education as well as teaching methods in "business plan" course has been presented in the second
section. The third section describes the methodology of research. The results have been presented in the fourth
section. Finally paper has been concluded by result discussion and future researches.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Entrepreneurship Education
Entrepreneurship education includes all activities aiming to foster entrepreneurial mindsets, attitudes and skills and
covering a range of aspects such as idea generation, start-up, growth and innovation (Fayolle, 2009).
Entrepreneurship education was pioneered by Shigeru Fijii, who started teaching in this field in 1938 at Kobe
University in Japan. Courses in small business management began to emerge in the 1940s and in 1947 Myles Mace
introduced the first course in entrepreneurship in USA at Harvard Business School. Only half a century later did this
phenomenon gain a more universal recognition (Alberti et al, 2004). Entrepreneurship courses are taught at nearly
every American Assembly of College Schools of Business (AACSB) accredited institution, at over 1400
postsecondary schools, and enjoy considerable world-wide growth (Karsson, 2003; honig, 2004).
In the midst of continuous growth in the number of universities offering entrepreneurship courses, opinions abound
on the issue of whether entrepreneurship can be taught and anecdotes about whether entrepreneurs are born or bred
fill discussions in international journals and conferences. Some people still argue that it is not possible to teach
entrepreneurship. For them, entrepreneurship is a matter of personality and psychological characteristics. One of the
arguments that have been advanced is that talent and temperament cannot be taught (Fayolle et al, 2008; Fayolle,
2007). It is becoming clear that entrepreneurship, or certain facets of it, can be taught (Kuratko, 2003). But one
could argue that this is true for many professions and professional situations. Nobody will dispute the fact that
medicine, law, or engineering can be taught and yet there are doctors, lawyers and engineers who are talented and
others who are not. A similar argument can be made for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs (Fayolle et al, 2008;
hindel, 2004; Fayolle, 2007). As discussed by Jack and Anderson (1998), the teaching of entrepreneurship is both a
science and an art where the former relates to the functional skills required for business start-up (an area which
appears to be teachable) while the latter refers to the creative aspects of entrepreneurship, which are not explicitly
teachable. There is a unanimous agreement among entrepreneurship educators that there needs to be a shift of
emphasis from the scientific to the artistic and creative teaching of entrepreneurship. Although the focus of most
entrepreneurship courses and training lies in the scientific dimension of entrepreneurship, it has been acknowledged
that entrepreneurship education helps ignite the artistic, creative and perceptual aspects of entrepreneurship. (Lee et
al, 2007
Entrepreneurship education covers a wide variety of audiences, objectives, contents and pedagogical methods
(Fayolle et al, 2008). The most commonly cited objectives of entrepreneurship education by previous studies are: to
acquire knowledge germane to entrepreneurship, to acquire skills in the use of techniques, in the analysis of business
situations and in the synthesis of action plans, to identify and stimulate entrepreneurial drive, talent and skill, to
undo the risk-adverse bias of many analytical techniques, to develop empathy and support for the unique aspects of
entrepreneurship, to revise attitudes towards change, to encourage new start-ups and other entrepreneurial ventures,
to stimulate the affective socialization element (Alberti et al, 2004). The objectives of entrepreneurship education
could be classified into three categories: raising awareness, teaching techniques, tools and how to handle situations
and supporting project bearers (Fayolle, 2007). Generally, entrepreneurship education aims to increase the
awareness of entrepreneurship as a career option, and enhance the understanding of the process involved in initiating
and managing a new business enterprise Lee et al,
The most important primary and short term results are to raise awareness, knowledge and understanding about
enterprise/entrepreneurship concept and practice, to develop individual enterprising/entrepreneurial skills, behaviors

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and attitudes, to develop personal self-confidence and capability, to develop empathy with an entrepreneurial way of
life, to embed entrepreneurial values and beliefs, to motivate and inspire students toward an enterprising or
entrepreneurial career or life, to understand venture creation process, to develop generic entrepreneurial
competencies, to develop key business 'how-to's, to develop personal relationship and networking skills, to prepare
for becoming a freelancer or self-employed, to start a new business, and to exploit institutionally-owned IP
(Hannon et al, 2006). On the other hand, entrepreneurship education long term results include change in attitude,
culture, support system and influence on business created by youth (Azizi, 2009).
The educational system creates awareness of alternative career choices and broadens the horizon of individuals,
equipping them with cognitive tools and enabling them to perceive and develop entrepreneurial opportunities.
Moreover, the educational system can help people to develop qualities that are considered important for
entrepreneurship. Moreover, entrepreneurship education can help students see in new venture creation a possible
career option, develop positive and favorable attitudes towards entrepreneurial situations and also entails proposing
new career perspectives for part or all of ones professional life. Entrepreneurship education can constitute an
essential tool in developing the entrepreneurial culture of a region. Finally, beyond the development of an
entrepreneurial spirit and taste for entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education can also contribute to improve the
image and highlight the role of entrepreneurs in society (Fayolle et al, 2008).
The analysis of the objectives of entrepreneurship programs introduces a deeper examination of the different
audiences for entrepreneurship education (Lonappan et al, 2011). The variety of audiences of entrepreneurship
education programs therefore includes students with various socio-demographic characteristics and various levels of
involvement and aspirations in the entrepreneurial process. There are significant differences between courses
intended for example to graduate management students and courses intended for students with a scientific, technical
or literary background or to teachers and PhD students. Similarly, teaching entrepreneurship to individuals who are
strongly committed to their venture creation project, to professionals and other practitioners committed to the field
of entrepreneurship or to students who have neither intention nor a concrete project is very different in nature.
Although some teachers tend to overemphasize it, pedagogy is not an end per se. Pedagogy is a means to achieve
objectives. As soon as objectives have been agreed upon and specific constraints have been identified, the right
teaching methods can be selected (Fayolle et al, 2008). But on the other hand, effectiveness of an entrepreneurship
education program depends mostly on teacher's skill and knowledge of different teaching methods particularly
entrepreneurship teaching methods.
2.2 Teaching Methods in Entrepreneurship Education
Carrier, 2007; Hindle, 2007; Fayolle, 2007; Fayolle et al, 2008)Fayolle et al, 2008). Also Lonappan et al (2011)
classify the teaching methods into following categories: case Study, group discussion, individual presentation,
individual written report, group project, formal lectures, guest speakers, action learning, seminar, web-based
learning, video recorded.
The study by Solomon et al (2002) highlighted that the most popular teaching methods in entrepreneurship
education are creation of business plans, case studies and lectures Lee et al,. However, Hytti and OGorman (2004)
suggest different view as they argued that there are many ways to offer entrepreneurship education, depending on
the objectives of such education. If the objective of the education is to increase the understanding of what
entrepreneurship is about, the most effective way to accomplish the objective is to provide information through
public channels such as media, seminars, or lectures. These methods are effective in terms of sending the relevant
information to a broader population in a relative short time period. If the objective is to equip individuals with
entrepreneurial skills, which are applicable directly to work, the best way is to provide education and training that
enable individuals to involve directly in the entrepreneurial process, such as industrial training. Lastly, if the
objective of the education is to prepare individuals to act as entrepreneurs, the most effective technique is to
facilitate experiments by trying entrepreneurship out in a controlled environment, for instance through business
simulation or role playing (Ahmad et al, 2004).
It seems that most authors categorize teaching methods into two groups, which are termed traditional methods
(comprising normal lectures) and innovative methods (which are more action-based), also known as passive
methods and active methods, respectively (Mwasalwiba, 2010). Compared with passive methods, active methods
according to Bennett (2006) are those that require the instructor to facilitate learning, not to control and apply
methods that enable students' self-discovery. The three most used methods are: lectures, case studies, group
discussions. These are actually the same methods used in other business-related courses, which according to Bennett
(2006) are passive and less effective in influencing entrepreneurial attributes. Fiet (2000a,b) explains that instructors
rely on lecture-based methods because they can be easily accomplished, and also because they require less
investment. Other methods used, but not as common as the previous group, include: business/computer or game
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simulations, video and filming, role models or guest speakers, business plan creation, project works. Also used were
games and competitions, setting of real small business ventures, workshops, presentations and study visits. This
latter category of methods is termed active and is said to be more appropriate for nurturing entrepreneurial
attributes among participants (Mwasalwiba, 2010).
It is however also generally agreed that traditional methods are less effective in encouraging entrepreneurial
attributes. It is said that such methods actually make students become dormant participants. These methods prepare a
student to work for an entrepreneur, but not to become one. The existing shortfall in teaching methods confirms
Kirby's (2004) comments that most entrepreneurship educators though relate their courses with new ventures
creation (educate for), they actually end up teaching about entrepreneurship. If entrepreneurship is to be learned as
a career, it is best done using some kind of apprenticeship. Traditional methods should only be used to give students
the commercial underpinnings of their entrepreneurial actions. But, doing something practical and having an
opportunity to question, investigate, converse, and discuss with real-world entrepreneurs gives both knowledge and
skills and also stimulates attitudes. However, in a practical sense most of the advocated active/action-based teaching
methods are costly and somehow may not align to the conventional university system of teaching and awarding
(Mwasalwiba et al, 2010).
The teachers main tasks are to provide theoretical knowledge on entrepreneurship and business planning, to instruct
the students to find and test business ideas, and assess business opportunities and to consult group work and
business plan writing. The students should realize the importance of preparing a business plan, gain an overview of
the Business Plan structure and preparation process, and get some practice in writing a business plan on the basis of
their own business idea. Knowledge on how to implement a business idea, experience of business planning and
information on the process of setting up an enterprise should motivate students to think about setting up their own
business and as a result, bring more of them to entrepreneurship (Venesaar, 2008).
2.3 Teaching Methods in "Business Planning" Course
One of the more popular curricula formats consists of teaching and monitoring the production of a business plan. In
a study of leading entrepreneurship educators, the development of a business plan is identified as being the most
important course feature of entrepreneurship courses (honig, 2004).
A business plan may be defined as a written document that describes the current state and the presupposed future of
an organization (honig, 2004; White et al, 2010). Preparing a business plan produces an aura of formality and
conviction often required before an individuals creation of a new venture will be taken seriously. Business planning
is meant to be the first step toward a specific process widely known as entrepreneurship, but unlike the activity of
entrepreneurship, it focuses primarily on ideas as opposed to actions (honig, 2004). A well-crafted business plan is
one of the most important communication tools for an entrepreneur and provides a sense of legitimacy to the firm
and the founders. The lack of a good business plan may be perceived as a lack of intent or commitment on the part
of the founder(s). Many entrepreneurs discover that the preparation of a well-crafted business plan can be a daunting
task. A well-written plan is concise, yet comprehensive and requires a myriad of decisions about all aspects of new
venture creation, from exploiting the opportunity to garnering resources and building the top management team.
Constructing a convincing business plan requires a deep understanding of the product, the competitive landscape,
the business model, and the prospective financial model. However, understanding the business is not enough: a
business plan must also be persuasive (White et al, 2010).
In considering entrepreneurship education, the pedagogical implications of business plans are paramount and should
be of concern to many educators in the field (honig, 2004). White et al (2010) suggests that an effective method for
teaching skills associated with writing a business plan may be achieved through a process of translating academic
research into pedagogy that may be useful in the classroom. Moreover, they suggest that in the particular case of
teaching skills associated with understanding essential criteria of a business plan, the appropriate pedagogies are
similar to those used to teach a craft. A craft is commonly defined as an art, trade, or occupation requiring special
skills.
As we can see in the literature, previous studies mentioned the importance of teaching methods in entrepreneurship
education but very limited studies investigated on the subfield of teaching methods. These studies pointed out that
the choice of teaching methods depends mainly on objective, content and audience of the course as well the
constraints imposed by the institutional context. As "business plan" course is a basic course in the entrepreneurship
education curriculum with a specific objective and contents, this study aimed to identify the appropriate teaching
methods in this course for the specific audiences of M.Sc. students in entrepreneurship management.

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3. Methodology of Research
In this research, two qualitative studies have been conducted. First study was done by semi structured interview on a
purposive sample of experts on teaching methods and education. In total, six interviews carried out in February and
March 2011. Every interview took 45 minutes in average. We provided a list of teaching methods based on review of
the literature on entrepreneurship education and then asked experts to give their opinion about the list or add other
suggested items that considered appropriate in the entrepreneurship education into list.
The second study was done by using "semi-structured interview" on a purposive sample of lecturers who have been
teaching the course of "business planning" and/or course of "fundamentals of Entrepreneurship" for M.Sc. students
in entrepreneurship management in 3 universities of Tehran. In total 10 interviews have been done during May and
June 2011. Each interview took around 1 hour, and it was asked from the lecturer their opinions about the different
methods could be used in teaching this course as well as the different component of the course. Data were analyzed
by SPSS by using the analyses of variance Friedman test. The Friedman test used in order to compare the mean rank
of different teaching methods.
4. Results
Results of first study are presented in table1. The results point out that some teaching methods like "group
discussion", "formal lectures", "group project", and "simulation" have been confirmed by all experts. On the other
hand, "interview with entrepreneurs" has been confirmed by only one of experts. Other experts agree with this
teaching method in condition that it is with debate and feedback by teachers not just done by students. Experts didn't
confirm "seminars" and "video" because they consider them as a tool not as a teaching method. Some other
teaching methods are added by experts that includes problem-solving, training in an enterprise and scientific visits.
Insert table 1 here
The results of the second study are presented in table 2. The Friedman test results (Asymp. Sig = 0.045, Chi-square
= 33.463) point out the ranking of teaching methods in whole course. Considering P<0.05, this ranking is
significant.
Insert table 2 here
These results (Table 2) showed that "group project", "case study" and "individual project" are the three most
appropriate teaching methods in the course of business plan. It is noteworthy that methods such as "role play" or
"scientific visit" are less appropriate methods.
Further analysis has been done on each component of the course business plan. The results of Friedman test point
out that mean rank for seven components including processing ideas / assessing opportunities, getting your plan
started (identify business concept / plan to identify the components / product type), the executive summary, industry
analysis and trends, target market, marketing plan and sales strategy, and operational, are significant while it is not
significant for other seven components including the competitors, strategic position and risk assessment, technology,
the financials, development, milestones and exit plan, management and organization, evaluation of business plan.
Table 3 presents the results of Friedman test (Asymp. Sig. = 0.007, Chi-square = 28.697) for the component
marketing plan & sales strategy as an example. As P<0.05, the mean rank of teaching method for this component is
significant.
Insert table 3 here
As results in table 3 shows, guidance of young entrepreneurs through support missions to help them in their
project, training in an enterprise, and problem-solving as are the most appropriate teaching methods in the
component marketing plan & sales strategy.
5. Conclusion
Entrepreneurship education not only has a key role in development of entrepreneurial culture in the society, but also
creates the necessary knowledge for starting, survival and growth of business. Like other education, teaching
methods have an important role in entrepreneurship education. Previous studies mentioned the importance of
entrepreneurship education and its effect on development of countries. Although researchers have been investigated
in the field of entrepreneurship education, a few studies have been conducted on the subfield of teaching methods.
Effectiveness of entrepreneurship education is largely related to the teacher's skills and his (or her) knowledge of
using different teaching method, specifically the methods of teaching entrepreneurship. Considering business
planning is one the major courses in entrepreneurship education, this study tried first to review the teaching methods
in entrepreneurship education and provide a list of these teaching methods. Then a qualitative approach let the
researchers complete the list and identify the appropriate teaching methods in the course of business planning.
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The results indicate that teaching methods of group project, case study, individual project, development of a
new venture creation project, and problem-solving are five most appropriate teaching methods in the course of
"business planning". Although the analysis on each component of this course pointed out the difference in teaching
methods ranking, so for some components the ranking of teaching methods was significant. For example for the
component marketing plan & sales strategy, the five appropriate teaching methods are respectively guidance of
young entrepreneurs through support missions to help them in their project, training in an enterprise,
problem-solving, group project, and guest speakers.
In group project students can learn better when they divided into groups and listen to others opinions. It enforces
criticism thinking, because the students criticize others opinions, although in individual project they learn the
strategies to deal with ambiguous and complex situations. Also in the case study method, studying number of
successful and unsuccessful business plans can help them to write a comprehensive business plan. The students need
to accustom with business problems. On the other hand, to be in a real business environment is essential for students.
Then development of a new venture creation project could be other teaching methods of entrepreneurship program
in universities. Problem- solving method enforces criticism thinking in the students and is one of the best methods in
entrepreneurship education. To have effective entrepreneurship education, a combination of teaching methods can be
used.
Because of newness of entrepreneurship education in Iran, one of this studys limitations was related to small sample
of lecturers of business planning course. Future studies could investigate on a combination of teaching methods in
this course. Examine this result in other courses could be another research. The evaluation of each teaching method
in BP course as well as other courses in entrepreneurship curriculum lets the educator to better decide on choosing
the best teaching methods in the course.
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Tabe 1. Teaching methods which could be used in entrepreneurship education

teaching methods confirmed by experts

experts opinion
A1

A2

A3

A4

A5

A6

case study

guest speakers

group discussion

formal lectures

role play

interviews with entrepreneurs

individual project

group project

Simulations

10

development of a new venture creation project

11

guidance of young entrepreneurs through support missions

to help them in their project

12

Seminars

13
Teaching methods added by experts

experts opinion

14

problem- solving

15

training in an enterprise

16

scientific visits

Table 2. Results of Friedman test of the teaching methods of the course" business plan"
Teaching Method
group project

Mean Rank
12

case study

9.75

individual project

8.70

development of a new venture creation project

8.50

problem- solving

8.50

guidance of young entrepreneurs through support missions to help them in their project

8.25

training in an enterprise

8.10

group discussion

7.40

formal lectures

7.00

interviews with entrepreneurs

6.55

Simulation

5.85

guest speakers

5.40

scientific visits

5.35

role play

3.65

Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education

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Higher Education Studies

Vol. 2, No. 1; March 2012

Table 3. Results of the Friedman test for the component "marketing plan & sales strategy"

10

Marketing plan & sales strategy

Mean Rank

guidance of young entrepreneurs through support missions to help them in their project

9.70

training in an enterprise

8.80

problem- solving

8.65

group project

8.65

guest speakers

8.45

group discussion

8.30

case study

8.05

interviews with entrepreneurs

8.00

development of a new venture creation project

7.75

formal lectures

7.70

individual project

6.80

scientific visits

6.45

simulation

4.45

role play

3.25

ISSN 1925-4741

E-ISSN 1925-475X